Leave Sinai
33 1 Our Father said to Moses, "Set out from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'To your offspring I will give it.'" 2 I will send an angel ahead of you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, for you are a stubborn people, and I might destroy you on the way.
4 When the people heard this distressing news, they mourned, and no one put on their jewelry.
5 For our Father had said to Moses, "Tell the people of Israel: 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up among you for a single moment, I would destroy you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do with you.'"
6 So the people of Israel stripped off their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.
The Tent of Meeting
7 Now Moses would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought our Father would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
Moses Enters the Tent
8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each at the door of his own tent, watching Moses until he had gone inside. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the entrance, and our Father would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they would rise and worship, each at the door of his own tent. 11 So our Father would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks with a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young assistant Joshua son of Nun would not leave the tent. 1 1 v11 To speak "face to face" means our Father spoke with Moses directly and intimately, as friends do — not that Moses saw his unveiled face, which verse 20 says no one can survive.
Our Father's Presence With Us
12 Moses said to our Father, "Look, you tell me, 'Bring up this people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'"
Show Me Your Glory
13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways, that I may know you and continue to find favor in your sight. Consider also that this nation is your people."
14 And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
15 And Moses said to him, "If your presence will not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are set apart, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?"
17 And our Father said to Moses, "This very thing you have asked I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."
18 Then Moses said, "Please show me your glory."
19 And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of our Father before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion to whom I will show compassion." 20 But he said, "You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." 21 And our Father said, "Look, there is a place beside me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."